Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

The aged-care royal commission has been doing very important work, and I was surprised by the government's response to the aged-care royal commission's interim report when it announced it last Monday. The interim report made three specific urgent recommendations to government: (1) fix the home care wait list; (2) reduce chemical and physical restraints; and (3) get young people out of aged-care facilities. I was really shocked. I was expecting the government to have actually done its homework. It has, after all, had all the data and all the information it needed to respond to the home care wait list.

When you've got 120,000 older Australians waiting on a wait list, and when the government has called a royal commission and said it's going to implement any recommendations of the royal commission, you would have thought that, when the royal commissioners said it was 'neglect' not to provide more home care, the government could have done better than 10,000 packages, when 120,000 older Australians are waiting. Sixteen thousand of them died in just one year whilst waiting for their home care package. Another 14,000 in just one year went into residential care when they wanted to stay at home, and most of them probably could have stayed at home if they'd got the home care package that they had been assessed for and been approved for but could not get under this government. The fact that people are waiting 22 months on average for a level 4 package says it all about this government's priorities. When you call a royal commission, when you say you're going to respond and when your commissioners say it's neglect, what do you do? In the first year, you fund 5,000 packages, when 120,000 older Australians are waiting. It is simply not good enough from the government.

It is not only Labor saying that. I am going to quote from Leading Age Services Australia, who said:

… with 120,000 people currently on the queue, many others will be left disappointed in the lead up to Christmas.

Indeed, LASA called it 'a missed opportunity'. Aged and Community Services Australia, ACSA, has said:

… with approximately 120,000 people waiting for a package, this will not even touch the sides of demand …

National Seniors Australia said:

… the government's response to the Royal Commission is just not sufficient.

It said:

The government's response to fund an extra 10,000 places is less than the number of people who died last year waiting for a package … The Royal Commission into Aged Care was told that 16,000 people died in one year waiting for a package and the government's funding announcement barely addresses ten per cent of the current waiting list.

Indeed, I understand only 5,500 packages are available in the first year and that they're being made available from today, when 120,000 people are waiting. What does that say to the other 110,000 or 115,000 people waiting on this queue?

But it is not only that. There have been some interesting revelations in the media today about the former minister for aged care's office and how it functioned. The important point about that is about the data and transparency that was not there from the previous minister. The current wait list for home care is overdue. This government, somewhere, has the list of how many people are waiting today for home care from the last quarter, and we don't know what it is, and the government hasn't yet released it.

But it is not only that. We were promised in estimates that we would get the number of people that died last financial year waiting for their home care package, and we don't have that figure either. The figure of 16,000 that everybody refers to is for the 2017-18 year. How many people died waiting in 2018-19? We don't know, because this government won't tell us. We have been trying for the last two weeks. We have asked questions in estimates, and we have asked a question in Senate question time, trying to find out how many people died last financial year. The government knows, and the government is not telling.

Where is the transparency from this government? Why will it not tell the Australian public what is happening in aged care in Australia today? Is it because they don't want to have those figures available for the royal commissioners? Is it because they're embarrassed by their response to the royal commission's interim report? Well, they should be embarrassed. They should be ashamed. All of them come in here and talk about how great they are with older Australians and what a great response it was. It is simply not true, and it's not just Labor saying that; it is the entire community. People are devastated. When I talk to people who are currently in that queue and are being told it's not going to make any difference to how long they have to wait for a home care package, it just goes to show what a sham this government is. It's not good enough. They can and should do better.

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